EXCLUSIVE: The Ministers Who Haven't Shown Up To Fight UKIP In By-Election

6 Nov 2014

The Chief Whip Michael Gove is reported to have become so frustrated with the attendance of his Conservative MPs at the Rochester and Strood by-election he has resorted to sending out lists of those who have not turned up. Gove’s list includes government ministers at every level. According to the Daily Telegraph one loyalist said: “If a few people feel embarrassed by the email, then so be it.”

Breitbart London can now exclusively reveal ten names from the latest list sent at lunchtime today. They include a full range, from old hands to young Turks, all standing accused of being unwilling to fight UKIP.

Jane Ellison – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health

Sam Gyimah – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education

Mark Harper – Minister of State for Disabled People

Philip Hammond – Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Jeremy Hunt – Secretary of State for Health

Andrea Leadsom – Economic Secretary to the Treasury

Patrick McLoughlin – Secretary of State for Transport

Daniel Poulter – Under Secretary of State for Health Services

Anna Soubry – Minister of State for Defence

Edward Timpson – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education

The by-election was forced by the resignation of Mark Reckless, after his defection to UKIP. Recent polling has put him 15 points ahead of his Conservative rival, Kelly Tolhurst.